So, there was news today that here in Canada some people will be receiving money in the form of a new Canada Workers Benefit payment. As it sates in the official site “To top-up the incomes of our lowest-paid—and often most essential—workers, the Canada Workers Benefit will provide up to $2,616 total for an eligible family, and $1,518 total for eligible single workers, split between three advance payments this fiscal year (in July 2023, October 2023, and January 2024), and a final payment after filing their 2023 tax return.”
Free money is always nice. It’s interesting too though as people were expressing how this money is nothing as everything has increased in price to the point where if you didn’t have a lot of money before then this is simply putting you back in the same position you would have been. That can be true of course. But I have an interesting mindset for this as well I thought.
Assuming you have been able to find a way to manage let’s say even at exactly zero dollars in your savings each month with the inflation, you could treat this like going to the end of an extreme frugal period to save money. Basically, it’s almost like you paid yourself after training to survive on the new prices out there.
It’s how I often learn to save in general where I find it a challenge to try and survive with as little possible regardless if I could splurge on certain things. So in these cases as bad as the situation may be economy wise, I sometimes treat this as if someone else just took away the cookie jar so that you can indulge in it. Now that you got it back you could just opt to eat everything or realize you aren’t really that hungry and will save it. Or, invest it in someway. Just a way of thinking on how to make the best of a situation.